Long before Kaepernick, there was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf's own anthem controversy: my story

A rally in support for free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be held later this month, according to a social media post by movie directory Spike Lee.
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Colin Kaepernick still hasn't found a home on an NFL roster.(Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, last week told The Washington Post that he believes quarterback Colin Kaepernick's national anthem controversy would be handled differently by his league.

“I don’t know what his status is in the NFL, but I’m glad the NBA doesn’t have a politician litmus test for our players,” Cuban said. “I’d like to think we encourage our players to exercise their constitutional rights.”

Cuban has a point - now. The Brooklyn Nets brought in Jason Collins four years ago as the first male openly gay athlete, for instance. And when Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racist comments came to light a year later, Commissioner Adam Silver handed Sterling a lifetime ban.

But the NBA had its own anthem controversy in 1996 - and almost everything about it played out differently. This one was about Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. While covering the New Jersey Nets at the time, I sat down with Abdul-Rauf to try to get to the bottom of that one.

Denver Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf on March 15, 1996 - his first game back after ending his pre-game refusal to stand for the national anthem.(Photo: AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Notice the different reason for the protest, the different reaction from the league - and the different reaction by the player.

Here's how I wrote it in a column for The Record on March 21 of that year:

Abdul-Rauf explains where he stands

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf looked a bit tense as he eyed an enemy just a dozen feet away Wednesday at the APA Trucking Facility in North Bergen.

Rauf's eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward in anticipation, trying somehow to figure out his foe's intent. And then . . .

This is Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who is liable to be the subject of vociferous booing when he is introduced at Continental Arena tonight as the Nuggets meet the Nets (7:30, SportsChannel)? This is the religious fanatic or symbol of religious persecution, your choice who last week kept radio talk-show hosts busy all day fielding questions from angry callers?

This is the center of a nationwide, emotional firestorm of controversy over the past 10 days for his refusal to stand during the playing of the national anthem?

Well, it's one side of Abdul-Rauf. And to the Nuggets' point guard, that's just the point. He believes that people who know little about either him or his point of view should be more hesitant to pass judgment until they know the whole story.

"When people yell things at me, I can't get mad and tell them off. What is accomplished by doing that? I have to try to bite my tongue and look at them and say, `You just don't understand," said Abdul-Rauf in a thoughtful, relaxed, 45-minute interview with The Record at a Secaucus hotel following his team's practice Wednesday.

"But some of these people, they just don't have a clue. At least sit back and hear all the arguments. Come ask me what kind of person I am."

What kind of person is he? Abdul-Rauf is an intellectually curious, devoutly religious Muslim who is both flexible enough to admit that he didn't do a good job handling the public relations aspect of his recent stance, yet adamant enough to insist repeatedly that he makes no apologies either for his beliefs or for his recent actions.

Abdul-Rauf peppered his conversation with a steady stream of allusions to the Koran. But this mostly serious man also has enough of a sense of humor to tell a sort of religious joke about how a true believer was furious when he left a camel unattended outside as he went to attend holy services, only to find it gone when he came out. How could that be, the man wondered?

The lesson, Abdul-Rauf said, is that being religious doesn't preclude one from being realistic. He said he now keeps the lesson in mind when approached by strangers whose purpose could range anywhere from an autograph request to an expression of outright hostility.

Abdul-Rauf, born and raised in Gulfport, Miss., as Chris Jackson, grew up with a mother who he said was not particularly devoted to Christianity. By the time he enrolled at Louisiana State University in 1988, he found himself feeling a spiritual void.

Mike Freeman, a Pascack Valley freshman in 2015 when he visited Cresskill to raise awareness of Tourette's Syndrome, shares the syndrome with former NBA point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.(Photo: Thomas E. Franklin/northjersey.com)

"I had a lot of questions about why to do things that Christianity, for me, personally, didn't have the answers for," said Abdul-Rauf, who first read the autobiography of Malcolm X at LSU and said it was one of the things that led him to become a Muslim. "My mother didn't understand, but I just said, `Mother, I love you, but this is what I believe, even if you don't talk to me anymore.'"

After converting in 1991, Abdul-Rauf found that the notion of life as a spiritual journey toward a better understanding of God allowed him to make sense of the many setbacks in his 27-year life.

Abdul-Rauf said that in that context, his battle with Tourette's syndrome, his divorce, and his controversial stance each are part of what he calls "a struggle, but a beautiful struggle."

"It's all part of trying to get closer to God. This whole experience has strengthened me. It's caused me to reflect more. In Islam, we say we are created in a world of struggle and turmoil. If everything was given to us, everything would be taken for granted. You learn from these experiences. God has blessed me to deal with this," said Abdul-Rauf, who changed his name in July 1993.

But why, many critics still wonder, did he refuse to stand for the national anthem when fellow Muslim basketball player Hakeem Olajuwon said he had no problem with doing so and when many other Muslims said they did not agree with Abdul-Rauf's interpretation of the Koran?

"In the holy book, God explains things in various ways. In Islam, there are different approaches that we take to certain situations," said Abdul-Rauf, who interpreted his religion's tenet of putting no symbol of nationalism before God to mean that it would be improper to stand at attention for the national anthem.

But while Abdul-Rauf spent most of the season either sitting in the locker room, stretching, or sitting down during the anthem, the issue did not cause controversy until fans in Denver began complaining last month. Once Abdul-Rauf reacted March 11 by issuing a statement that he would refuse to stand no matter what the NBA wished him to do, he was suspended indefinitely by the league.

Abdul-Rauf's suspension lasted only one game before he decided that praying silently during the anthem would not conflict with his religious beliefs. The point guard said Wednesday that he recently found a story in the Koran about a visit by the prophet Mohammed to a non-Muslim funeral in which the prophet stood for the ceremony.

"When asked why, he said he did not stand for that cause, but for a deeper cause," said Abdul-Rauf, who decided he could follow a similar path in solving the anthem crisis.

"My approach was not the best, but it wasn't wrong. I'm not apologizing. We cannot compromise our beliefs, true. And yet Muslim is not limited, it's flexible," said Abdul-Rauf, citing as an example that while Muslims are forbidden to eat pork, a man nearly starving to death would be allowed to eat just enough to get by until he was out of danger.

That same flexibility, Abdul-Rauf said, allows him to comprehend the anthem controversy.

"People fought under the banner, I understand that. But what I was doing, in no way was I being demonstrative. I was not saying, `Look at me.' I was not doing it to be disrespectful.

"From this I've learned that before making a decision, you have to look into it more. You have to study not only what the prophet Mohammed said, but why he did it," said Abdul-Rauf, who is noncommittal about requests from advocates who want him to continue to pursue the issue on First Amendment grounds.

Abdul-Rauf, booed loudly at Chicago on Friday after returning from his suspension, got less of a negative reaction Sunday at Detroit and Monday in Toronto. He said that after the initial avalanche of negative comments, reactions generally have been less hostile.

"It's become mixed. I just hope this will cause people to look into these issues more. Charles Barkley said that he would first like to hear Mahmoud's side before he judged, to get both sides to it. That's what people should do," said Abdul-Rauf, a 1990 draft pick of the Nuggets who leads the team in scoring at 19.6 points per game.

And while Abdul-Rauf said, "It's made me realize more how critical, or backwards, sometimes we are. It didn't surprise me, it just confirmed it," he also sees reason for hope ironically, in one of those very programs that had fanned last week's fires.

"I was listening to the radio before, and someone called up and said, `At first I was upset.' But he said he had a couple of days to think about it, and he said, `You know, this is supposed to be a free country, with freedom of choice.' And he said, `He might not have done it that way, but [Abdul-Rauf's] not wrong for doing this. I don't really blame him for it. '

"But at first he admitted he was angry, and I think a lot of times that happens. At first, you deal with it in an emotional way. Then you say, hold on, let me think about what's going on here."

And by the end of the season, Abdul-Rauf hopes, fans around the nation will have had a chance to do the same thing.

To hear Abdul-Rauf in his own words recently to a San Francisco-based African-American weekly, click here.